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Conference on Precision Electromagnetic Measurements

Minimizing time dilation shift in Penning trap atomic clocks

J.N. Tan, J.J. Bollinger, D.J. Wineland

Published Dec 17, 2002• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

The time dilation shift is expected to give the largest systematic uncertainty in an ion clock. We show that, in a Penning trap, it can be minimized if the ions are prepared in a special spheroid. The results apply directly for one ion species and approximately for sympathetically cooled systems.>
DOI
10.1109/cpem.1994.333319

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If environmental perturbations are made negligible, the time-dilation shift is expected to give one of the largest systematic uncertainties in a stored ion clock. In general, this shift increases with the number of trapped ions. Fluctuations in the time dilation shift therefore could limit the frequency stability of an ion clock. We show that in a Penning trap, relativistic time dilation can be minimized if the laser-cooled ions are prepared in a special spheroidal state. In addition, a modest stabilization of the spheroid near the minimum-shift configuration fan significantly reduce fluctuations in the time dilation. The results obtained for a single-species ion clock also provide a good approximation for a sympathetically cooled system.>
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